Treatments by Breast Cancer Stage

Breast cancer is a complicated disease. Every woman's case is distinct. Your experience may be very different from those of friends or relatives who also had breast cancer. So there is no single "best" treatment. Only you and your team of health-care providers can work out the best approach for you. No matter what treatment you have, you will need regular checkups to make sure that you're staying healthy.

Doctors evaluate a woman's breast cancer in part by determining how large the tumor is and how far it's spread. This is called staging. It's just a way of summarizing your current condition. There are five basic stages, 0 through IV, and a number of sub-stages.

Staging doesn't tell the whole story. Other factors can affect your prognosis, such as the type of cancer, the speed with which the cancer is growing, your general health, your age, whether you had breast cancer before, and whether female hormones affect the cancer's growth.

If you know the stage of the disease that you have, you can use this quick guide to see what kinds of treatments might help.

Stage 0 Stage I Stage II Stage III Stage IV

Stage 0 Treatment Options

When needed, treatment for stage 0 breast cancer is very successful. The five-year survival rate is about 100%. This very early stage of the disease is not always actually cancer. Instead, it's often a precancerous condition. Treatment isn't always needed, and close observation may be enough. Treatments differ depending on what kind of stage 0 cancer you have. Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) or intraductal carcinoma is one type. In this condition, abnormal cells appear in the ducts of the breast. Sometimes, these cells become cancerous. That's why it's key to get treatment now. Here's a list of the typical treatments:

• Surgery is a standard. For smaller tumors, you might get a lumpectomy, in which only the abnormal cells and some of the tissue are removed. Some women choose a mastectomy, in which the entire breast is removed. After a mastectomy, you might choose to have breast reconstruction surgery.
• Radiation therapy is standard treatment after a lumpectomy. Radiation therapy attacks any abnormal cells that might have been missed and decreases the risk of another cancer.
• Hormone therapy with tamoxifen after surgery may also help prevent cancer from developing in the same or opposite breast.

Lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) is the other type of stage 0 cancer. LCIS develops when abnormal cells appear in the lobes of the breast. Most women don't need treatment right away. However, LCIS raises the risk of getting cancer. So it's key to have frequent checkups with your doctor. Here are some treatment options:

• Hormone therapy with tamoxifen to lower the risk of developing cancer.
• Bilateral mastectomy -- the removal of both breasts -- is another option. Some women choose this approach because they are worried about getting cancer. They might have certain risk factors, like a strong family history of breast cancer. After surgery, you might choose to get breast reconstruction surgery. However, experts think that a bilateral mastectomy is a more extreme approach than women usually need.

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